Hurricanes face goalie crossroads in Game 4 after Andersen gets pulled in wild Game 3

The Carolina Hurricanes are heading into Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final with their most important in-series question still unresolved: who gets the start in net, Frederik Andersen or Brandon Bussi. After a chaotic Game 3 that ended in double overtime, Vegas leads the best-of-seven series 2-1, and Carolina has to recalibrate quickly ahead of Tuesday’s matchup in Las Vegas. The Game 3 sequence made the goalie decision impossible to ignore, not just because Andersen was replaced, but because Carolina got a jolt from its backup anyway.

In Saturday’s Game 3, Andersen was pulled after a four-goal second period put Carolina in a deep hole. reported that Bussi replaced Andersen to begin the third period and made 18 saves on the first 18 shots he faced, including stopping Mitch Marner’s penalty shot attempt. The relief goaltending held long enough to keep Carolina alive through overtime, but the game’s final swing still arrived. Shea Theodore’s shot in the second overtime hit off the end boards, caromed into Bussi, and found the net at 5:38, sealing a 5-4 Vegas win.

What makes the Game 3 ending so difficult for Carolina is how much of their season-long certainty about their primary goalie had been built on Andersen’s earlier playoff form. Before Saturday, noted Andersen played every minute of Carolina’s first 16 postseason games and had been 12-1 with a 1.41 goals-against average and.931 save percentage through the first three rounds. Those numbers do not erase what happened in this final, though, where the same report said Andersen had surrendered 12 goals on 65 shots for a 4.44 GAA and.815 save percentage, including allowing four goals on 16 shots over the first two periods in Game 3.

Carolina’s challenge now is deciding whether the answer is to return to the starter who carried the team, or to lean into the momentum Bussi brought in a high-pressure moment. There is no simple rest-and-rotation logic in a Cup Final, and the Hurricanes’ coaching staff is not pretending it is. quoted coach Rod Brind’Amour saying they would “figure all that out later,” with a couple of days to reassess before Game 4. Even captain Jordan Staal, as reported by Yahoo Sports, framed the situation as part of the job, saying, “It’s part of the gig, and it’s never easy.”

The stakes for Carolina are immediate, because Vegas is not just winning games, it is forcing Carolina to manage uncomfortable timelines. The Golden Knights’ goaltending stability also stands in contrast: ’s series lookahead reported that Vegas starter Carter Hart has started each game for the Golden Knights this postseason. That stability matters when games swing on thin margins, like they did in Game 3’s final moments.

Still, Carolina has shown it can absorb shocks. In Game 2, the Hurricanes erased a two-goal third-period deficit to beat Vegas 4-3 in overtime, tying the series after falling behind. With Bussi’s performance providing a clear reference point for what the backup can do under the spotlight, Game 4 becomes less about choosing between “comfort” and “confidence” and more about selecting the option that best fits the Hurricanes’ game plan for what comes next. The one thing Carolina can’t afford is a repeat of the defensive lapses that helped fuel the second-period collapse in Game 3, regardless of which goalie starts.

What to watch next is straightforward. Carolina will determine whether the Game 3 relief surge from Bussi is enough to change the starting decision, or whether Andersen’s workload and prior playoff record pulls the team back to its proven baseline. For Vegas, the expectation is that the same scorers will hunt similar opportunities, knowing Carolina’s netminding could be different again for Game 4.